OK. I’ll talk about it. Not because I think it what happened
a couple of days ago makes much of a difference. But because so many people
think it does.
There was a story widely reported in the media a couple of weeks
ago about flight delay on El Al because of 2 Charedim that refused to be
seated in their assigned seats. They were displeased with the seat they got because
each of those seats were next to a woman.
They asked to be switched. Nothing wrong with that. It is
when they insist on it and disrupt the flight until they get their way that it
becomes a problem and in my view a huge Chilul HaShem!
In this case the incident was reported inaccurately.
The initial report was that the flight was delayed over an hour to the great
discomfort of all the passengers. But a Charedi passenger by the name of Katriel
Shem-Tov who witnessed the whole thing informed a reporter for the Times ofIsrael that it never happened. The insistence to have their seats changed by
those 2 Charedi passengers was accommodated in less than 5 minutes. The rest of
that hour delay was for reasons unrelated to those 2 Charedim. The delay was already posted in the terminal before
any of the passengers even boarded.
Everyone is jumping all over media reports and resultant outrage
over this event believing those 2 Charedi passengers were responsible for over
an hour delay which we now know is untrue.
But the fact is it did happen. It just didn’t take as long
as was originally reported. There was therefore no unreasonable delay because
of it. Which means that it would have never been reported let alone so widely
condemned.
The fallout of the original report gave way to a lot of
anger on both sides. El Al said it would in the future remove any passengers that refused to
sit in their assigned seats. A Charedi MK threatened a Charedi boycott of all EL AL flights because of this.
I added my own two cents as well. All because of a false account of it by the
media.
Some people have asked me to retract what I originally wrote
about this or at least correct it in a new post. I suppose that is a reasonable
request. Which I am doing here. But my
criticism is still valid. Even though in this particular case it did not lead
to a Chilul HaShem it easily could have. Because it has happened before.
I have seen this kind of behavior first hand. There is a
sense of entitlement that certain Chasidic passengers seem to have that ends up being
a Chilul HaShem. I witnessed it personally on a flight to Israel when a large Chasidic family boarded
the plane and started ordering the flight attendants around as though they
were their personal servants! I’m not so sure the 2 Chasidim in this case wouldn’t have prolonged the flight had they
not gotten their way.
It is not the time it takes to find passengers that are
willing to exchange seats that is the problem. It is the insistence on it that
is.
It’s one thing to have a religious issue with sitting next
to a woman on a flight. Whether anyone agrees with it or not, people have the
right to their own standards. Even if they
are extreme. Provided they do not inconvenience others by insisting on them. They
can ask politely if it is possible to switch seats. If they are told no,
that should be the end of it.
The fact that in this case it didn’t take that
long to accommodate them might have solved the problem here. But who knows whether
that will be the case the next time someone insists on changing their
seats for that reason. Here is what Mr. Shem-Tov, the
Charedi passenger that witnessed the
whole thing said:
My guess is that the whole business with the Haredim didn’t take more than five minutes. Of course, I am not justifying their behavior and one should not cause a delay of even one minute… I certainly do not intend this post to defend those two passengers.
That is exactly right. The outrage expressed at this
particular incident may have been misplaced. But as the Charedi passenger
indicated, it is not really defensible no matter how much time was spent on it.
Even though when a bad act happens in a short amount of time (and does not exacerbate
the situation) that does not turn it into a good – or even a justifiable act. As I told one individual
who pointed out this media error to me (perhaps hoping that I would retract) - if a
mass murder is reported to have taken an hour and it is later corrected by a
witness saying that it didn’t take an hour at all - but less than 5 minutes…
would that make any difference? The crime was still committed.
What does all this say about accuracy in the media? I think
its says something we all already know. Sometimes they get it wrong. Which can
have unfair negative repercussions and consequences that end up being unjust. Perhaps
this happens more times than we realize. Does that me we just discard the free
press as unreliable? Hardly. Most of the time they do get it right. It is a
free press that protects us all. Knowledge is power. What we don’t know CAN hurt us.
The lesson here is
that the media should be a lot more careful about accuracy in the reporting. It
may not end these kinds of errors. Reporters and editors are only human. And
can make mistakes no matter how careful they are. But hopefully it will reduce these
kinds of errors in the future.
